Nearly every Halloween in the classroom has seen me running to the library during my conference period to beg the librarian for a book that would satisfy my student’s request that we do something “scary.” Coming up short on a day like Halloween is like looking into your kids eyes on Christmas morning as you explain that you just didn’t make room in your schedule for presents this year.
So once again, I’ve armed myself with a holiday mini unit. This Halloween unit is flexible enough to blend easily with whatever I did in reading workshop on October 30, but festive enough to scratch that Halloween itch. Here’s a peek at what I include:
5 Halloween Read Alouds for Elementary
Here are five go-to Halloween books. Some are scary, some are just Halloween-Themed fun:
- The Bones of Fred McFee by Eve Bunting, The poem tells the story of Fred McFee, a skeleton two children have hang up as a Halloween decoration. Though plastic, the skeleton has an odd effect on the animals around him.
- The Spider and the Fly by Tony DiTerlizzi, This one reminds me of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, especially Little Red Riding Hood.
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, A fun, repetitive Halloween story that’s perfect for primary students.
- In a Dark, Dark Room by Alvin Schwartz, The spooky, kooky collection from your child. I still vividly remember a first-grade classmate scaring me to death with her retelling of “The Green Ribbon.”
- Dem Bones by Bob Barner A fun, rhythmic Halloween read. Here’s a related song.
10 Activities that Connect to Your Reading Curriculum
The idea here is to have a small repertoire of Halloween-themed activities that will seamlessly fit into your curriculum. I’ve focused my activities on broad reading concepts like:
- Mood & Tone
- Creating Suspense (Writer’s Craft)
- Moral
- Inferences
- Plot
- Figurative Language
- Genre vs. Form
Here are some of the activities I’ve created in relation to the read alouds listed above:
If you could use a few of these activities in your own classroom, you can find them here. Do you have go-to activities and books for Halloween? What are they?
